Tuesday, April 03, 2018

No one said managing a Major League baseball team was easy. No, in fact it's quite the opposite. For us at home, often in front of the television watching the game, we in fact become 'arm chair' managers. Decisions for us seem easy... But at the ballpark and when you're in a dugout filled with players, and the stands filled with people, the job is a serious one. We've grown accustomed to Phillies managers being poised, and making the right moves at the right time for many years. Current Phillies manager, Gabe Kapler, came from a different position in Major League Baseball just before he was hired by GM, Matt Klentak.

Klentak is behind the scenes, he's made his mistakes on the job, but no one actually noticed them like they are noticing the ones that Gabe Kapler has made so far in the early season. The normally laid back press in Philly has suddenly jumped to alarm status. Articles in the Philadelphia Daily News in the past couple days have not really roasted Kapler for signalling for a reliever when there was no one warming up yet, but they have really circled around the subject like buzzards waiting to feast on Kapler's carcass.

Stop the madness, it's only a few games into the season, there is 162 games in a baseball season and we have a long way to go.

A few mistakes are going to be in order for Kapler, he's never been on the field before managing a major league ballclub. It's not the end of the world that happened the other night, it's part of the package that Kapler was hired with. A guy who is a good motivator and great talker on how to be successful, but has never translated all of this to the field in managing a team.

Just like the weather yesterday, it's snowing in April in New York. You can't change it, you just have to accept it. Much like Phillies fans, who are very much interested in this season. We can afford to have Kapler make a few errors. The players on the field will not rebel on Kapler, in fact they will probably show him some empathy in the situation he is in. The team is made up of baseball players, not a bunch of people who are going to put Kapler's feet to the fire for making an error.

It's the 4th game of the season scheduled tonight at Citi Field in New York. The Phillies have a young nucleus of players that have a lot of potential. Couple these type players with veteran Jake Arrieta and you have Wild Card potential. We'll forget about this little gaff in June when the Phils are playing over .500 ball and looking like they are going places in the NL East.